Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Tilapitopia 3.0

Phil,

Are you talking about the biochips? If so here's an interesting thread on it. I believe there are surface area specs listed for biochips, mb3, kaldness, and AA.

http://aquaponicsnation.com/forums/topic/8583-new-bio-media-mutag-biochips/

Good to hear all is well!

One of my newest high schools is running 0.25 NH3 and 1.0 nitrites. Will have to head over there and see what the problem is. I gave them 4 cubic feet of live media!

I transported it over in black garbage bags. It may have been too long a trip and some of it suffocated. It was too cold to transport it in the hauling tank.

with cecil's help i made this comparison picture for another forum. I am not sure any one is better than the other, its math and surface area vs cost.

But it's a good picture to show what they look like in comparison to each other

Thanks Brian! I forgot about that!

The stuff I have good info on is this: Advance X-1 Bio elements

The price jumped from ~ $37.00 to ~ $52.00 per cubic foot. Shipping is always higher than you want it to be. For some reason, they have to use a super sack and ship freight. They also charge ~$49.00 for the super sack.

I only wanted 8 cu-ft, which I don't need that much, but emailed them to see where price breaks are on quantity. That could be the reason for the price jump, because previous quote was for 14 cu-ft.


I think you should look at what the active surface area is rather than the total surface area.

Absolutely!

Interestingly that is VanGorder's argument for using RBC's over the media.

The reason I mentioned that is the pic above is a bit misleading.

For the AA and K1, it states the total surface area. For the MB3 it states the SSA (Specific Surface Area). SSA = Active Surface Area = Protected Surface = usable surface to do it's thing.

SSA for K1 is ~500, SSA for AA is ~550, and SSA for MB3 is ~604. Stoney Creek sells the same stuff as AA for a bunch under the Easy Pro brand, but they list it as over 500 ft2/ft3. Maybe should give them a call

SSA for the X-1 is ~800, while total is ~850.

Just wanted to clear that up.

A bit more to it than meets the eye tho, but for practical purposes of using barrels for bioreactors and just dumping media in it, it's six of one, half a dozen of another.

I'll just get the X-1 because I have a lot of technical info on how to apply it properly, and can migrate that to one of the barrels I have. (not the one posted earlier, but the one with the red lid)

That biochip looks like a disaster waiting to happen. That one scares me

If it works in your situation, that's all that matters.

Was familiar with the surface area differences of specific etc., but sometimes I just don't go into too much detail. That gets me in trouble sometimes.

Doubt I would be interested in the biochips as I couldn't justify the cost for my small DIY systems.

The German one in the link I provided is interesting. The Germans come up with some cool technology at times.

First price break was at 17.5 ft3 for $799.00 (1/3 of a super sac). Said OK, but work out the best shipping $$$ and ship it to the shop. Have loading docks and fork trucks. See what that ends up at?

They said the price increase was due to an increase in Virgin materials to make the media. They do not use regrind material at all.

I can appreciate that after spending countless hours in recycling facilities.

18 cubic feet of the X-1 en route from Louisiana. Being committed, I was a tad reluctant to open the email and read the quote for fear of what freight charges might be. Opened all my other emails first, messed around with a few other things... OK, it's time. It was substantially lower than before for even less media. I reminded them before they quoted the freight that it was going to a business address with adequate facilities for handling semi trucks. That made a huge difference.

Anyway, had a nice chat as well. We won't discuss most of it, but went into detail about my plan for the small barrels I have. He said that all sounds good and I was getting into internal structure to mix it better. He said all I need to do in a round gizmo (my word) is induce a little bit of rotation on the media as well, so when the "coarse" bubbles are moving it up, the rotation aids that everyone is getting treated equal, and therefore does it's job better.

Just a couple questions.

What are ya all using for compressors? What has worked well for you that has been reliable? Rocking piston and regen I have are way too noisy in the basement and don't want to go thru the time and expense to hush them up.

Retention time. Anyone figuring that in? I don't think it's too critical on lightly loaded systems with excessive media, but they tell me a minimum of 10 minutes.

Thanks!!

Cecil - Ever find out what happened at the school?

I use these that are designed for septic tanks. Not the cheapest but the diaphragms have lasted me for 3 years of almost 24/7 use and are easy to replace if need be. Of the five I have owned at least three years, I just replaced one diaphragm recently for the first time because the flow dropped a little. They have them available with an audible alarm if the pump fails for whatever reason. Lots of sizes available.

I use the ET60 size for my 150 gallon fish tanks and mbbr barrel for up to 4 cubic feet of media. 60 lpm but supposed to use only 40 watts of electricity. Haven't checked with meter.

Extremely quiet! I've also used them outside with no issues. Beware of cheap pumps! Got a cheap one once that didn't put out the air as advertised. Not even close.

Even though they are located inTennessee, the two guys that run it are from England and definitely sound like it!

http://www.bluewaterpumps.com/air-pumps.php

I like the ones with the alarms and outputs because I can just wire that to the PLC to monitor.

Thanks!!!

Seeing as I have hijacked Brian's thread...

Yeah, the extra cost for the alarm is unnecessary as I already have that part covered.

For the interim, until pressures and flows are worked out, I'm just going to get a couple cheap linears from Allied Aqua

They guaranteed them to work as advertised, and for screwing around, why spend too much.

Other thing is they had a sale on the low cost Jebo heaters, so picked up a half dozen of the 300 watt job's. I figure the elements should work OK, as most do, until they fry due to lack of proper circuit protection, but with these, I believe the controller would smoke first.

Silly me was all worried about getting the barrels fabricated to meet the media when it arrives within the next few days. On the way home, thought, why not just dump a bunch in the 40g breeder tanks, toss some bubbles in, pop the biowheel rigs on the tanks, toss some food in to grow the bacteria and kill 2 birds with one stone. I still have some quirks

That was fast - delivered this morning.


Got an email before that saying early next week. Within an hour an R&L truck shows up.

Hijack over...

I don't see the hijack,

Its all relevant.

Now that is a crapload of biomedia. And yes a crapload is a standard measurement.

Brian - I measured the SS more closely when I got home, taking into considerations, pretty sure they gave me a tad more than I ordered.

Bill D. - Yep, saw that! The equation is: BL - Delta T = CL.

Perfect!

Remind me again, how many shovelfuls to the crapload?

Not quite as many as a buttload.

JKB has thoughtfully provided the equation for conversion between buttload and crapload earlier.

I don't know Spark, that may not be a certified (legal trade) unit of measurement.

Well he left out boatload. And wheelbarrowload.

When I contact Rainman to schedule delivery of Yolk Sac's Christmas forage, will Rex understand just what a crapload of Gizzard Shad entails? I hate leaving such things to chance.

What? Next you're going to tell me that "smidgeon" and "hair" are not acceptable either. I am depressed.

You guys are way over my head on this. As an aerospace engineer we need to be precise so I can tell you we measure everything in dabs, pinches and "just a bits".

I could see smidgen, but hair could be a highly controversial subject depending on what you are doing.